The Faithful One!!!

THE FAITHFUL ONE

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant… Deu 7:9

First things first (Let me forewarn the readership that Alphabet “F” would be used frequently in this message…sic). What is the chief and highest end of man? Let the revered Christian Book namely the Westminster catechism give the answer. Man's chief and highest end is to glorify (worship) God, and fully to enjoy him forever. When it comes to glorifying Him and fully enjoying Him, let it be said that the entire exercise ought to be “absolutely genuine emanating right from the innermost core of one’s being (read spirit)”. This would lead to the next question, how could the process of glorifying Him originate right from the depths of one’s heart? It is only possible, when a person is truly fascinated by His unique traits. Remember, worshipping God for what He is, is the highest form of worship, standing head and shoulders above other forms of worship, which come with strings attached, such as worshipping Him for the blessings, He showers upon us. While on the subject, at this stage, it would serve us well to look at the synonym of the word “Glorify”, which is “Magnify”. When, one magnifies Him, that is to say, when one keenly observes His Divine nature, with a magnifying glass, as it were, the “spiritual explorer” (if you permit me to use this expression) in you is bound to come across several unique attributes of the Almighty, which would evoke awe, and in turn lead to spontaneous, heart-felt worship and praise.

In this message I would like to bring before my readership, one definite attribute in the Almighty, which at once evokes awe in me that is …He is (as the above-captioned Scripture emphasizes) a Faithful One. One may well say that His signature of faithfulness is seen vividly in all of His dealings with men beginning with Adam. Going with the ebb and flow of this message on the topic of our Lord’s faithfulness, Yours Truly would also attempt

a) to reconstruct events of Daniel 5 (where we would see overthrowing of the Mighty Empire of Babylon by the Medo-Persian King Cyrus in line with the prophecy therein within a few hours of its utterance - Daniel 5:24-30), even

b) whilst bringing out some similarities between King Cyrus and the Indescribable One…our Saviour Christ

At this stage, it would also serve us well to look at the Hebrew and Greek words employed for describing faithfulness which are “Emunah” and “Pistis” respectively which mean loyalty or steadfastness. It is His infinite loyalty which binds the Eternal One into an eternal relationship with his prized creation-Man.

A closer look at the above captioned Scripture portion (at the beginning of this message) would also reveal that the words “Faithful” and “Covenant” are spoken of in the same breath. In fact where God’s faithfulness is, the word Covenant (whose base is God’s faithfulness) cannot be far-off.

Before taking one proverbial step forward at this point, I would like to dwell more on the significance of the word “Covenant” even while comparing it with the word “Contract” to understand better the nuances of the former. The 2 notable differences between these 2 almost similar words are…while a contract is always between 2 Parties of equal stature (eg…a Land owner and a building Contractor), a Covenant is always between a higher party and a lower party like

1) a marriage between a stronger husband and his wife-a weaker vessel- Mal 2:14/ 1 Peter 3:7 -or

2) the will of an experienced father being handed over to his not-so-experienced progeny- Job 42:15 or

3) the Prince Jonathan entering into a covenantal pact of friendship with the shepherd boy David (1 Sam 18:1-4).

Also we need to remember that while a contract stands broken if either of the 2 Contracting parties violate the terms of agreement, a Covenant remains intact at all times, from the higher party’s perspective with he always fulfilling the terms of the agreement even if the lower party violates them. One need not go beyond a faithful husband Hosea and his faithful demeanor towards his faithless wife Gomer to better comprehend the meaning of the word Covenant (Hosea 3:1-3).

To substantiate the above points I want to bring before my readership the following examples which underscore our Heavenly Father’s faithfulness…

Faithful Father of Man…

Yes, Adam whose Father is God (Luke 3:38) transgressed the covenant he had with his Father dealing faithlessly with Him ( Hosea 6:7-ESV) but his Divine benefactor would not go back in the matter of helping him and his wife in various ways…beginning with

a) provision of clothes ( Gen 3:21)

b) protection from wild animals (Daniel in the lion’s den story would get dwarfed in comparison, for after the Fall all the “wild” animal-tigers, bears, elephants- would all become hostile to our “First Parents”, leave alone the Lions) and later on